we're in the dark (and you're the light)
by shineslikedarkness
Summary: They're not friends, but maybe they can learn to be family. {teamfic}


**AN: So I decided to publish this story after days of hovering over it on my computer. I felt like it was too fast paced at places, or OOC in other places, and I tried to edit it and then I gave up and let it be. I like reviews, by the way. A lot. I also didn't have anyone beta this, so I probably made a bunch of mistakes, but I'm reaaally lazy, and I reaaaally don't feel like going back to check. **

**Disclaimer: It's not mine. I don't own anything. Unfortunately. **

She makes them pancakes in the morning.

It's because she gets up earlier than them, she tells herself. Because she's so haunted by nightmares and torn by dead, dull words that she just needs a distraction.

_~Sometimes she bakes muffins.~_

They would nod at her in appreciation, and they would dig in, and when they looked back up, Natasha would be gone. They're used to that. She was always distant.

"We're not friends," she said once, trying to explain. She knew that they knew that she was right.

And she knew that they knew that _nobody_ knew how to reply.

"We saved the world together," was all Steve said.

"I know," she replied. They waited for more, but it didn't come.

_~And if she's in a good mood, she'll make them eggs and bacon.~_

There's a day where Clint all of a sudden isn't in the tower. She asks the others, of course, and they all shrug, as clueless as she is.

Somewhere in the Bahamas, Fury had told her. Emergency mission.

He'll be back in a week or so.

She sighed when she found out.

She's worrying, but she isn't sure why. She's never worried about him before. It's a simple task, a simple mission, something that shouldn't leave him with any injuries at all.

And it's at night, when she wakes up screaming and she runs to Clint's room, because that's what she's always done, because he understands her, because she can talk to him, and finds that his bed is empty, perfectly made, does she realize why she's so anxious.

If he's hurt, if he dies, if anything bad goes wrong, she'll be left with the others.

And she has nothing against them.

She trusts them, really.

But they're different.

A god, a world-famous billionaire, a supersoldier, an uncontrollable monster.

And Natasha realizes that she's frightened. There's super-soldier serum in her, but it's just not the same. She lurks in the shadows, takes out men and women without a thought, lies, murders, destroys. She's not a superhero.

She's not some sort of idol.

She's an assassin.

_~And there are days where breakfast is non-existent, and Natasha is out on some sort of crazy, practically suicidal mission. Nobody feels like eating anyway.~_

* * *

Two weeks later, and Clint isn't home.

She's in a panic. The type of panic, of course, that barely shows, but Bruce can see it. He's been a doctor long enough to catch up on the lip-biting and the flickering gaze.

"He's going to be okay," he reassures her awkwardly, and she looks at him in surprise. He wonders why.

* * *

He's not going to be okay, of course.

It's 10 A.M. when all of a sudden, Tony's cell rings. He picks up. Fury's calling.

"We need you in," he says, and he's not in a happy mood. "All of you."

Tony knows better than to shoot back a joking remark. He ends the call and gives a nod to everyone else.

"Suit up," he says. "We're needed."

Natasha pales.

They leave to get changed.

* * *

"The target fought back," Fury says. "Turns out they were expecting us."

Tony raises an eyebrow. "We're the extraction team?" he asks, and he has a you've-gotta-be-kidding-me look.

"Apparently so."

His sunglasses slip off his nose. Perfect timing, as always.

"You're not serious. We're going to break into some sort of high-tech, high-security company, and just...what? 'Pew, pew pew?' Shoot the baddies?"

"I wouldn't have phrased it like that, but yes. Pew. Pew. Pew."

Somehow, in Fury's mouth, even the word "pew" sounds terrifying.

Bruce gives a hesitant cough. "I'm not sure if I should come along. Might be a bad idea."

Tony nods vigorously. "Actually, I think none of us should go. I mean, we care about Legolas and all, but sending in gods and rage monsters? Nicky-"

"Don't call me that."

"-Nicky, I hate to break it to you, but Natasha would probably be better at this sort of mission."

"Agent Romanoff will need backup."

"Oh, so now we're the backup team. What happened to the extraction team?"

There's a long, exasperated silence, and Steve shakes his head quietly.

Warningly.

Tony decides to shut up.

"May I explain?" Fury asks, and it's not really a question. More of a demand.

"Yeah," Tony squeaks.

"Good."

* * *

It turns out the company they're breaking into isn't as high-tech and high-security as Tony made it out to be.

They find Clint in a white room, with white walls and white floor, and white chairs. He's got handcuffs on, and he's gagged, and he's very much unconscious.

Tony bursts through the window and picks him up, and flies off. Just like that.

Natasha storms out and kills the target. She shoots the man in the stomach.

Twice.

And she kicks him.

And then she leaves with the poise and the elegance of a ballerina.

* * *

Clint recovers.

He wasn't really injured in the first place, but he had quite a lot of drugs in his system. They let him rest.

* * *

A month later, Tony wants to go to Disneyland.

He gets one exasperated look from Bruce, two confused looks from Steve and Thor ("What's Disneyland?" says Thor), and two incredulous looks from a very terrifying Natasha and a very moody Clint.

"We wouldn't last a day," Bruce reasons. "We'll start arguing over something stupid, like...like bagels. And then, well...the Other Guy'll come. And we'll get kicked out. And Director Fury will be furious-"

Tony sniggers.

"He'll-"

He sniggers again.

"Tony-"

He snorts, and slaps a hand over his mouth.

Bruce sighs and shakes his head.

He leaves.

There's a silence, and then Tony gives a shrug.

"So. Disneyland?"

Thor looks interested.

Steve looks bemused.

Clint yawns.

Natasha cleans her knives.

"Oh, come on," Tony says.

Natasha shoots a glare from under her eyelashes, which, now that Tony thinks about it, throws very, very ominous shadows across her face. An eyebrow is raised.

Tony gulps.

"Actually," he squeaks (for the fourth time that day). "It's been a long night. I think I'll head to bed."

* * *

Somehow, Tony wins.

And so they're packing their bags and shoving them into the van, Thor grinning, Steve looking politely excited, Tony beaming smugly, Bruce looking uncomfortable, Clint looking tired, and Natasha looking downright murderous.

For some strange reason called You-guys-really-need-bonding-time-anyway, Fury's happily given them a driver.

A driver who takes one look at the group and decides he's not going to say a single word to them the entire trip.

* * *

Natasha's edged herself to the very side of the van. She's made the same decision as the driver, seeing that she could be at home, curled up with a good murder mystery, or perhaps at the gym, training for her next mission.

She doesn't need to go to Disneyland.

She doesn't need to take pictures with Snow White (whom she despises), she doesn't need to go on the little Alice-In-Wonderland train, she doesn't need to fly in a stupid little boat on the Peter Pan ride.

She huffs.

Mentally curses Tony.

And as if on cue, Tony shoots her a grin.

* * *

They have a room in a five-star-hotel.

The boys change into t-shirts and khaki shorts, and Natasha puts on a slim white dress. She's realized that it's going to be hot outside, and that her other choice was a black skirt. Which would attract the sun. And make her irritated for the rest of the day.

When she joins the others in the lobby, she realizes they're whispering, plotting something.

Tony even gives an evil cackle.

Everyone else in the lobby shuffles away from them.

"Ahem," Natasha says, and they all turn around, faces innocent, eyes wide. Except for Steve, who's looking incredibly uncomfortable.

"Natasha," Clint greets, and he's grinning. "Remember that time we played Truth or Dare five years ago in Singapore?"

She gives him a blank look.

"Well, you see, you chose dare, and then we were attacked, and you almost died, and we never got to follow through with the game."

"No," is her immediate response. "I'm not playing Truth or Dare in Disneyland. This is torture enough."

"But 'Tasha," he whines. "It's going to be a good dare, I promise."

She sighs.

"Okay," Bruce says, and even he's sort of laughing. "Thor, you can tell her."

Thor has such an expression of sincerity when he steps forward that Natasha almost smiles. "We dare you to wear the objects called 'high heels' on your head the entire day."

They collapse into a fit of giggles (with the exception of Steve, who's still looking really uncomfortable).

Natasha's very unimpressed.

"You spent how long thinking of that dare?" she asks.

"Ten minutes," Tony says.

"I could kill you all with high heels," she replies smoothly.

They stop laughing.

Tony is now terrified.

Bruce is sheepish.

Thor is sort of chuckling.

Clint is amused.

Steve is still uncomfortable.

The Avengers, in their khaki-shorted, white-dressed glory, walk out of the hotel silently.

* * *

Clint wants to go on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

The others say no.

He says please.

Natasha glares.

He says please-with-a-cherry-on-top.

* * *

Clint doesn't want to go on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride anymore.

He has a very big bruise on his arm, and the only thing good about the situation is that Natasha sort of-maybe-looks a little bit-not really-guilty.

They go on the 4D rides instead.

Steve stares at the screen in wonder, but then a ghost pops out and he lets out a very unmanly scream.

Tony laughs about it for whole hours.

Steve decides that Clint may have a bruised arm, but he has a very bruised ego.

* * *

They eat cotton candy.

Natasha has a pink one, and the others have blue ones, and Tony is sulking because Natasha gets to feel special, and he has to eat a stupid blue raspberry fluff thing.

Surprisingly, Bruce hasn't Hulked-Out yet.

Tony's starting to make bets on when he will.

He's drawn Steve into his web.

Bruce does not look happy about this.

Clint says Bruce will Hulk-Out any moment, seeing how annoying Tony is.

Tony's very offended.

* * *

They head around the park a bit, but there's really nothing to do. Tony manages to get into the castle, but the humor of that ends soon.

Clint gets bored and begins to shoot at the princess cut-outs, and security comes over and lectures him.

Steve's tackled by ten or so young fans, and he's now signing autographs. Cinderella looks a bit annoyed, seeing that those boys were taking pictures with her five minutes ago.

Bruce is going on about the medical properties of a flower that Thor found.

Thor is charming Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping Beauty's prince comes over and frowns at him.

Natasha is cleaning her knives.

Again.

* * *

Eventually, Natasha attacks Prince Charming.

Nobody's sure what happened, but all of a sudden, she's yelling Russian insults and has her ankles wrapped around his neck. Prince Charming's face turns bright red, although whether it's because of embarrassment or lack of air, no one can tell.

Security runs over, and they look very, very exasperated.

They manage to pry Natasha off of the prince, but now she's punching security. One of them says something into his walkie-talkie, and Natasha stops punching him.

She glares and sulks off.

* * *

They go back to the hotel. Mostly because everyone's now in a bad mood, and also because Tony's suddenly remembered a movie that he wants to watch.

He says he saw it on the TV schedules earlier.

They settle down with popcorn, and turn on the screen.

* * *

It turns out to be a very stupid movie, but Thor is still interested, so they leave it on.

Natasha frowns and realizes that they have a very big problem with the sleeping arrangement, and then everyone turns and frowns too.

Steve ends up on the couch, and Thor ends up on the ground. Tony claims a bed for himself, and Bruce sleeps on the second bed, because he doesn't like closed spaces and would rather be free to thrash around in his sleep.

Clint curls up on the third bed. Natasha joins him, settling her back against his back. She opens her phone.

"That's bad for your eyes," Clint tells her.

She doesn't really care.

They fall asleep to the sound of Thor munching popcorn and Steve snoring and the television flickering on and off in the background.

* * *

Natasha feels safe.

Very safe.

She decides that she's not that frightened anymore, because she'd like to stay like this for the rest of her life.

And she thinks to herself, pleased, that perhaps they aren't friends, but maybe they're learning to be family.


End file.
